Hassan Dehghanpour, PhD

Area of Study / Keywords

Petroleum Engineering

About

Education

• PhD, Petroleum Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX. 2011.
• MS, Petroleum Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB. 2008.
• BSc, Petroleum Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, 2006.
• BSc, Mechanical Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, 2006.

Research

Research Group Website

I study fluid flow in porous media by using experimental and mathematical techniques for applications in hydraulic fracturing and enhanced oil recovery. My current research areas include:

Understanding Rock-Fluid Interactions

Wettability evaluation

• Measurement of rock wettability and its correlation with other petrophysical properties
• Characterization of rock pore structure using SEM and AFM analyses

Gas flooding

• Visualization of rock- gas -oil interactions at reservoir conditions
• Laboratory simulation of gas flooding and huff ‘n’ puff processes for improving oil recovery from tight oil reservoirs
• Evaluation of gas-oil interactions at the bulk phase conditions using PVT analysis

Surfactant flooding

• Characterizing bulk-phase behaviour of surfactant solutions with oil
• Effect of fracturing fluid formulation on oil recovery from unconventional reservoirs
• Laboratory evaluation of surfactant flooding in low-permeability reservoirs

Complementary Flowback and Post-flowback Production Data Analysis for Uncertainty Reduction in Fracture Characterization

• Analysis of extensive flowback data from multi-fractured horizontal wells
• Development of models and procedures for analyzing water/oil/gas flow rates and pressure measured during flowback operations
• Analysis of flowback rate and pressure data to forecast post-flowback production
• Investigation of the effects of natural/secondary fractures on flowback and post-flowback production

Fracture Characterization by Analyzing Produced Flowback Salts

• Chemical analysis of the water produced during flowback operations
• Development of a comprehensive workflow to characterize the fracture network from the salt concentration profiles
• Investigating the reasons behind poor water recovery after fracturing operations and the possibility of recycling/reuse of flowback water

Development of Rate-Transient Models for Production Data Analysis

• Modelling fluid flow through matrix, secondary fractures, and primary hydraulic fractures
• Extension of the conventional dual porosity models to triple porosity models to account for secondary fractures communicating with the induced hydraulic fractures
• Uncertainty reduction in parameter estimates by developing specialized plots for flow regime analysis

Selected Publications

A. Rock-Fluid Interactions

   I. Wettability Evaluation

• Yassin M. R., Begum M., Dehghanpour H. Organic Shale wettability and its relationship to other petrophysical properties: A Duvernay case study. International Journal of Coal Geology, 2017, 169: 74-91.
• Javaheri A., Dehghanpour H., Wood J. M. Tight rock wettability and its relationship to other petrophysical properties: A Montney case study. Journal of Earth Science, 2017, 28(2): 381-390.
• Habibi, A., Dehghanpour, H., Binazadeh, M., Bryan, D., & Uswak, G. Advances in understanding wettability of tight oil formations: A montney case study. SPE Reservoir Evaluation and Engineering, 2016, 19(4), 583-603.
• Yassin, M. R., Dehghanpour, H., Wood, J., & Lan, Q. A theory for relative permeability of unconventional rocks with dual-wettability pore network. SPE Journal, 2016, 21(6), 1970-1980.
• Lan Q., Xu M., Binazadeh M., Dehghanpour, H., Wood, J. M. A comparative investigation of shale wettability: The significance of pore connectivity. Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering, 2015, 27: 1174-1188.
• Lan, Q., Dehghanpour, H., Wood, J., & Sanei, H. Wettability of the Montney tight gas formation. SPE Reservoir Evaluation and Engineering, 2015, 18(3), 417-431.
• Xu M., Dehghanpour H. Advances in understanding wettability of gas shales. Energy & Fuels, 2014, 28(7): 4362-4375.

  II. Aqueous fracturing fluids/oil/ rock interactions

• Yang S., Dehghanpour H., Binazadeh M., Dong, P. A molecular dynamics explanation for fast imbibition of oil in organic tight rocks. Fuel, 2017, 190: 409-419.
• Zolfaghari A., Dehghanpour H., Holyk J. Water sorption behaviour of gas shales: I. Role of clays. International Journal of Coal Geology, 2017, 179: 130-138.
• Zolfaghari A., Dehghanpour H., Xu M. Water sorption behaviour of gas shales: II. Pore size distribution. International Journal of Coal Geology, 2017, 179:187-195
• Ghanbari E., Dehghanpour H. The fate of fracturing water: A field and simulation study. Fuel, 2016, 163: 282-294.
• Binazadeh, M., Xu, M., Zolfaghari, A., & Dehghanpour, H. Effect of electrostatic interactions on water uptake of gas shales: The interplay of solution ionic strength and electrostatic double layer. Energy and Fuels, 2016, 30(2), 992-1001.
• Ghanbari E., Dehghanpour H. Impact of rock fabric on water imbibition and salt diffusion in gas shales. International Journal of Coal Geology, 2015, 138: 55-67.
• Lan Q., Ghanbari E., Dehghanpour H, Hawkes, R. Water loss versus soaking time: spontaneous imbibition in tight rocks. Energy Technology, 2014, 2(12): 1033-1039.
• Makhanov, K., Habibi, A., Dehghanpour, H., Kuru, E. Liquid uptake of gas shales: A workflow to estimate water loss during shut-in periods after fracturing operations. Journal of Unconventional Oil and Gas Resources, 2014, 7: 22-32.
• Dehghanpour, H., Lan, Q., Saeed, Y., Fei, H., Qi, Z. Spontaneous imbibition of brine and oil in gas shales: effect of water adsorption and resulting microfractures. Energy & Fuels, 2013, 27(6): 3039-3049.
• Dehghanpour, H., Zubair, H. A., Chhabra, A., Ullah, A. Liquid intake of organic shales. Energy & Fuels, 2012, 26(9): 5750-5758.

  III. Gas/oil/ rock interactions

• Habibi A, Yassin M R, Dehghanpour H, Bryan, D. Experimental investigation of CO 2-oil interactions in tight rocks: A Montney case study. Fuel, 2017, 203: 853-867.
• Parmar J, Dehghanpour H, Kuru E. Displacement of water by gas in propped fractures: Combined effects of gravity, surface tension, and wettability. Journal of Unconventional Oil and Gas Resources, 2014, 5: 10-21.

B. Complementary Flowback and Post-flowback Production Data Analysis

• Xu, Y., Dehghanpour, H., Ezulike, O., & Virues, C. Effectiveness and time variation of induced fracture volume: Lessons from water flowback analysis. Fuel, 2017, 210, 844-858. (In Press).
• Fu Y., Dehghanpour H., Ezulike D. O., Jones Jr R. S. Estimating Effective Fracture Pore Volume From Flowback Data and Evaluating Its Relationship to Design Parameters of Multistage-Fracture Completion. SPE Production & Operations, 2017 (Preprint).
• Ezulike, D. O., Dehghanpour, H., Virues, C. J., Hawkes, R. V., & Jones, R. S. Flowback fracture closure: A key factor for estimating effective pore volume. SPE Reservoir Evaluation and Engineering, 2016, 19(4), 567-582.
• Xu Y., Adefidipe O., Dehghanpour H. A flowing material balance equation for two-phase flowback analysis. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, 2016, 142: 170-185.
• Ezulike O. D., Dehghanpour H. A complementary approach for uncertainty reduction in post-flowback production data analysis. Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering, 2015, 27:1074-1091.
• Xu Y., Adefidipe O. A., Dehghanpour H. Estimating fracture volume using flowback data from the Horn River Basin: A material balance approach. Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering, 2015, 25: 253-270.
• Ezulike O D, Dehghanpour H. Modelling flowback as a transient two-phase depletion process. Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering, 2014, 19: 258-278.
• Abbasi, M. A., Ezulike, D. O., Dehghanpour, H., Hawkes, R. V. A comparative study of flowback rate and pressure transient behavior in multifractured horizontal wells completed in tight gas and oil reservoirs. Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering, 2014, 17: 82-93.

C. Fracture Characterization by Analyzing Produced Flowback Salts

• Zolfaghari, A., Dehghanpour, H., Noel, M., & Bearinger, D. Laboratory and field analysis of flowback water from gas shales. Journal of Unconventional Oil and Gas Resources, 2016, 14, 113-127.
• Zolfaghari, A., Dehghanpour, H., Ghanbari, E., & Bearinger, D. Fracture characterization using flowback salt-concentration transient. SPE Journal, 2016, 21(1), 233-244.

D. Development of Rate Transient Models for Production Data Analysis

• Yue, M., Leung, J. Y., & Dehghanpour, H. Numerical investigation of limitations and assumptions of analytical transient flow models in tight oil reservoirs. Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering, 2016, 30, 471-486.
• Ezulike O. D., Dehghanpour H. Capturing the effects of secondary fractures on production data using flow regime equations and specialised plots: An uncertainty analysis approach. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, 2016, 138: 201-217.
• Ezulike, O. D., Dehghanpour, H. Implications of Characterizing Tight Oil Reservoirs with Dual-and Triple-Porosity Models. Journal of Energy Resources Technology, 2016, 138(3), 032801.
• Ezulike O. D., Ghanbari E., Siddiqui S., Dehghanpour, H. Pseudo-steady state analysis in fractured tight oil reservoirs. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, 2015, 129: 40-47.
• Ezulike D O, Dehghanpour H. A model for simultaneous matrix depletion into natural and hydraulic fracture networks. Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering, 2014, 16: 57-69.
• Ali A J, Siddiqui S, Dehghanpour H. Analyzing the production data of fractured horizontal wells by a linear triple porosity model: Development of analysis equations. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, 2013, 112: 117-128.

E. Three-Phase Flow in Porous Media

• Murtaza M, He Z, Dehghanpour H. An approach to model three‐phase flow coupling during steam chamber rise. The Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering, 2014, 92(6): 1100-1112.
• Mojarad, M., & Dehghanpour, H. Analytical modeling of emulsion flow at the edge of a steam chamber during a steam-assisted-gravity-drainage process. SPE Journal, 2016, 21(2), 353-363.
• Dehghanpour H, DiCarlo D A. Drainage of capillary-trapped oil by an immiscible gas: Impact of transient and steady-state water displacement on three-phase oil permeability. Transport in porous media, 2013, 100(2): 297-319.
• Dehghanpour H., DiCarlo D. A. A comparative study of transient and steady-state three-phase oil permeability. Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology, 2012, 18(01): 54-63.
• Dehghanpour, H., Aminzadeh, B., Mirzaei, M., DiCarlo, D. A. Flow coupling during three-phase gravity drainage. Physical Review E, 2011, 83(6): 065302.
• Dehghanpour H, Aminzadeh B, DiCarlo D A. Hydraulic conductance and viscous coupling of three-phase layers in angular capillaries. Physical Review E, 2011, 83(6): 066320.

PET E 365 - Well Logging and Formation Evaluation

Theory and engineering applications of measurements of physical properties of the formation near the well bore; interpretation and use of the information in reservoir engineering. Prerequisite: PET E 275.

PET E 630 - Advanced Reservoir Engineering

Single and multiphase flow in porous media: concepts of relative permeability, capillary pressure, and wettability. Immiscible and miscible displacement processes in porous media. Overall reservoir performance (tank model): Mechanics of primary production and material balance equation of gas, gas condensate, volatile and black oil reservoirs. Graphical and analytical decline curve analysis. Diffusivity equation and pressure transient in oil and gas reservoirs. Prerequisite: PET E 475 or consent of instructor.

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